Guide to the Secret Tombs

For one reason or another, Tomb Raider has moved away from tombs, and the raiding thereof, to focus on other things like running in the wilds, hunting and other things unrelated to tombs in general. However, there are seven hidden tombs that can allow you to partially revisit what the Tomb Raider series is supposed to be all about. Each contains a rather tricky puzzle, and we’ve got them all listed below: where to find them, and how to solve them.

Or you could watch the videos for each tomb, courtesy of the Outside Xbox team. And, keep in mind that some tombs may require you to have tools which you may not have yet. You’ll need to advance the main story before continuing.

Tomb 1: Mountain Village, Tomb of the Unworthy

After gaining the Climbing Axe, which you’ll need inside, you need to make your way to the Mountain Village, and return to the Tomb of the Unworthy camp at the base of the waterfall. Once you reach the waterfall, cross over the bridge and jump down into the water and take the cave to the right, inside you will find the path to the tomb.

Inside, you’ll find a cage resting on the ledge, and a platform weighed down by bodies. Across the gap, you will also see a fire source. You’ll have to push the cage, then run across to the other side, jump onto the platform with bodies on it, and jump to the ledge with the fire source.

After getting the fire, jump on back to the platform, burn the bodies to lessen the weight and then jump back on to the side where you started from. You’ll need to push the cage again, and this time, the platform won’t sink back down.

With your climbing axe, jump towards the wall, and climb up. The treasure will be waiting for you up at the top, a Mountain Village Relic Map.

Tomb 2: Mountain Village, Hall of Ascension

For this tomb, you’ll need Rope Arrows and the Firestarter flint. Once you have them, make your way back to the Mountain Village and return to the Overlook Camp, where you are looking for the helicopter pilot. You’ll need to use a rope arrow to get to the higher path, then use another rope arrow to reach the entrance.

Once inside, you’ll see a window letting in all the wind to your left, and a hanging platform at the center of the room. Both of these have cranks of some kind. You’ll have to start by closing the window using the crank to the right of the window.

After closing the shutters, make your way to base of the hanging platform, and turn the crank to raise it. The shutters will reopen, don’t worry, that’s supposed to happen. Get on the platform as quickly as you can. Once on the platform, focus on the right side of the room (directly in front of Lara if you jumped onto the platform from the box to the left), you should see a wooden wall, where you can jump at and hang from the ledge.

While hanging from the wooden rails, shimmy Lara to the left carefully. When you can shimmy no more, drop down and continue onwards. You’ll come across the Mountain Village GPS Cache Map in the treasure chest.

Tomb 3: Shantytown, Well of Tears

For this tomb, you’ll need the Rope Arrow. Travel to Shantytown’s Helicopter Hill camp. You will need to make your way through the town and find the building with white murals and protected by a rope booby trap. Defend yourself, then proceed to pull out the floor board with your rope arrow.

Once inside, simply have a look around. There’s a suspended platform in the centre and a bunch of petrol cans scattered about. You’ll have to toss a couple on to the platform to get it to come down.

Once the platform is down on the ground, you’ll have to toss out at least one petrol can. It will start to rise again once you get off, so you’ll have to run up the ledge in the centre of the room and hop onto the platform as it is rising.

The moment you get on the platform, quickly turn to your left to see a ledge. Jump across quickly and you’re done. The chest is nearby, and you’ll find the Shantytown Relic Map inside.

Tomb 4: Shantytown, Chamber of Judgment

For this tomb, you’ll need the Rope Arrow and the Climbing Axe. Travel to Shantytown’s Windmill camp. Travel to the eastern caves below the gondola station in the southern parts of town and make your way down to reach the ledges across the gap. Follow the righthand passage after climbing up the ledge and cross the bridge to find a narrow entrance with white murals on it.

Once inside, simply have a look around. There’s a see-saw in the centre and a petrol can on the ground. Go ahead and pick it up, and place it on the naturally raising end of the see-saw to weigh it down.

There are two other cans scattered around. One is on a platform that will collapse when you make contact with it, and another on an unreachable platform. You will need to use a Rope Arrow to pull the heavy suspended device to collapse the unreachable platform.

Lara is roughly equal in weight to three cans, so now, you can jump and cling to the wall to the right of the Buddha statue using the Climbing Axe. Climb to the left ledge and you will soon come to the chest with the Shantytown GPS Cache Map inside.

Tomb 5: Summit Forest, Stormguard Sanctum

For this tomb, you’ll need to bring Fire Arrows and the Climbing Axe. Travel to Summit Forest’s Hunting Lodge camp. Head north and explore the areas past the bridge, just east of the northernmost end of the river. You are looking for a lantern beside a cave, which is easier to spot at night.

Once inside, it will be very dark. You can shoot fire arrows at the lamps hanging from the ceiling, or you can believe in your Jedi-powers and do things in the dark. It’s easier to shoot the lamps.

There is natural gas here, which you’ll want to shoot with another fire arrow. It will destroy some of the debris blocking your way. Now, climb up the wall and then head left and climb up again, and stop just before the wooden pole extending outwards into the darkness. There will be another torch above, which you can shoot for some light.

In the darkness ahead of you is a wall you can climb, so go ahead and jump and use your Climbing Axe to catch the wall and climb up. Once you reach the top of the wall, the path is straight and the chest at the end will contain the Summit Forest Relic Map.

Tomb 6: Shipwreck Beach, The Flooded Vault

For this tomb, you’ll need to bring the Climbing Axe, the Prying Axe, and Rope Arrows. Travel to Shipwreck Beach and start heading towards the Cliffside Bunker. Climb to the top of the bunker and go through the narrow passage to find the entrance.

Pry the door open and head inside. Once you get to the start head up the stairs and hit the green power button, you’ll see the water become electrified. Go back down the stairs and press the button to open the gate to enter the vault itself.

You’ll see that the water looks rather dangerous, and there’s a raft on the far side. It’s tied down, so you’ll need to shoot the rope with a Fire Arrow. Then use Rope Arrows to bring it closer. From there go to the room with the generator and shoot the wall out with a shotgun, proceed to rope arrow the raft towards you until you can jump on it and go onto the next platform.

Now shoot the counter-weight in the ceiling to pull out the electrical source so you can cross the water to the next platform. Move quickly as it does not stay safe.

The idea is to move the raft under the electrical source, so that when you pull down the counter-weight to raise the source, it will fall on the raft when it falls again leaving the water safe for you to cross. When you’ve managed to do that, go behind the building marked “2" and head up the stairs to get the Shipwreck Beach Relic Map from the chest.

Tomb 7: Shipwreck Beach, Temple of the Handmaidens

For this tomb, you’ll need to have the Rope Ascender as well as everything else. Travel to Shipwreck Beach and make your way to the zip line north of the Survivor’s camp to reach a barricade blocking the way to a bunker.

Fire a Rope Arrow and use the Rope Ascender to break the barricade. Enter the bunker and look for the small gap to the left. You will need to use Rope Arrows to reach the Temple. You’ll have to move quickly in the next part.

First you need to raise the gate using the crank so the lit buoy can come through. Once it’s past the gate, let it go and run quickly to the left. The buoy will release a pole that you can jump and grab on cross the gap.

Now, look quickly towards the buoy to spot a rope-covered beam, which you should Rope Arrow and the buoy will push another pole into position, which you can jump to take hold of and then swing to the wall in front you of. Use the climbing axe to scale the wall, and the chest at the end will contain the Shipwreck Beach GPS Cache Map.